Breaking Down Link Rot: The Chesapeake Project Legal Information Archive’s Examination of URL Stability

Ms. Rhodes explores URL stability, measured by the prevalence of link rot over a three-year period, among the original URLs for law- and policy-related materials published to the web and archived though the Chesapeake Project, a collaborative digital preservation initiative under way in the law library community. The results demonstrate a significant increase in link rot over time in materials originally published to seemingly stable organization, government, and state web sites

Reframing Collaboration through the Craft of Ubuntu: Design Students Collaborating with Artisans

There are many examples of initiatives involving design students collaborating with African artisans to produce new products, but these have generally been students from institutions outside Africa who have been ‘helicoptered’ in leaving little, if any, positive legacy from the encounter. This paper presents an alternative case study of South African design students combining participatory design methods with craft practice as a means of equitable engagement during a weeklong workshop with local artisans. The encounter took place in Stellenbosch, South Africa in 2014 and was one of the outcomes of the wider doctoral research that asked what role does practice play in collaboration between designers and African craft producers? Second year illustration students from the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography paired with local craft artisans. The resonance of participatory design methodology with the African notion of ubuntu, which speaks of people’s interconnectedness, is described. A localised knowledge sharing, collaborative, co-creative and experiential workshop methodology is presented as an alternative to the usual paradigm of philanthropic, top down, pedagogic, designer-led, short-term interventions. Thus returning the focus to the local, leading to socially based craft practice as a way to democratise the relationship between the students and the artisans

Looking Long-Term: Do Environmental Education Programs Have Lasting Impacts on Perceptions of Nature?

Environmental education seeks to develop a population that is concerned about the environment and its associated problems, and which is dedicated to solving these issues. Much of prior research has focused on the short-term success of environmental education programs for youth, and there has been little attention paid to whether these experiences have lasting effects into adulthood. This study focuses on youth involvement in organized environmental education opportunities through non-school and school-based programs and environmental perceptions as young adults. The data used in this study were collected through an online survey of university students (N=927). This preliminary analysis indicates there are slight positive impacts of youth participation in environmental education efforts on individuals' environmental perceptions of nature. These findings suggest that further evaluation of the long-term impacts of environmental education is crucial so that formal and informal programs and efforts can be more intentionally developed to engage young people in the environment in life-long, meaningful ways.No embargoEnvironmental Policy and Managemen

DEEP DESIGN: an exhibition about pace, place and personhood

Sarah Rhodes' The Craft of Ubuntu: an exploration of collaboration through making, was on show at 'DEEP DESIGN: an exhibition about pace, place and personhood'. DEEP DESIGN was a multimedia design exhibition including projects from designers, architects, artists and urbanists who work in ways that reflect strong and enduring commitments to people and places. "Their work serves as evidence of truly co-creative relationships and each project challenges the transient nature of how design is done today", explains Siobhan Gregory, guest curator and lecturer in industrial design at Wayne State University. The exhibition was supported by workshops, lectures and discussions at the university to encourage audiences to consider critical questions of design process, identity and ownership. As creative professionals and urban planners increasingly look to Detroit as participants in and recipients of their creative endeavours, these questions are increasingly salient for the city and region. Other exhibitors included: Fallen Fruit's 'Mid-Century Modern'; Christian Nold's 'Sensory Journeys'; Jamie Hayes' 'The Uniform Project'; Urbz's 'Homegrown Neighbourhoods'; Valentina Nisi's, Miguel Caldeira's and Mara Dionsio's '7 Stories'; and Kounkuey Design Initiative's 'The Kibera Public Space Project'

The Public Collaboration Lab - Infrastructuring Redundancy with Communities-in-Place

In this article we share an example of challenge-driven learning in design education and consider the contribution of such approaches to the weaving of communities-in-place. We describe the research and practice of the Public Collaboration Lab (PCL), a prototype public social innovation lab developed and tested via a collaborative action research partnership between a London borough council and an art and design university. We make the case that this collaboration is an effective means of bringing capacity in design to public service innovation, granting the redundancy of resources necessary for the experimentation, reflection, and learning that leads to innovation—particularly at a time of financial austerity. We summarize three collaborative design experiments delivered by local government officers working with student designers and residents supported by design researchers and tutors. We identify particular qualities of participatory and collaborative design that foster the construction of meaningful connections among participants in the design process—connections that have the potential to catalyze or strengthen the relationships, experiences, and understandings that contribute to enrich communities-in-place, and infrastructure community resilience in the process

Needs Elicitation for Complex Systems Engineering

This practice builds on the sound systems engineering practice for needs elicitation. It extends the practice to emphasize important considerations, strategies, and key questions to consider. The practice ensures needs elicitation is conducted throughout the evolving system’s lifecycle, involving a large set of stakeholders, who may have changing needs as the system evolves